Winner
|next = Season 5 |synopsis = Jimmy turns the page on his reputation; Lalo tracks a loose end in Gus' operation; Mike is forced to make a difficult decision. |viewers = 1.53 million }} "Winner" is the tenth episode of the fourth season of Better Call Saul, and the fortieth episode of the series altogether. Summary Teaser In a flashback to 1998, Jimmy appears with a group of other soon-to-be lawyers before a bar committee. Chuck speaks before the committee and vouches for his brother. That night, a party is held at a karaoke bar celebrating Jimmy's new career. While Ernesto performs, Jimmy convinces Chuck to come onstage and sing with him. As the McGills sing a duet of ABBA's "The Winner Takes It All", Chuck takes the microphone and steals the show while Jimmy sits in the background. Later, the two drunk brothers come to Jimmy's apartment, where Jimmy states his ambitions of joining HHM as a fellow named partner to Chuck. As the two drunk brothers settle into bed and fall asleep, they finish singing the ABBA song. Act I At Gus' warehouse, Mike gives instructions to his men in their manhunt for Werner. He further phones a TravelWire agent and cons him into divulging where Werner's wife wired him money. He drives off to see the TravelWire agent. Meanwhile, to mark the one-year anniversary of Chuck's death, Jimmy shows up at Chuck's grave bearing flowers and makes a show of seemingly grieving for his brother; other mourners show up and see him, assuming his grief is sincere. This is revealed to be part of a scheme by Kim to aid Jimmy in reinstating his law license, by making him appear to be more sympathetic towards Chuck than he did before his suspension was extended. Jimmy stands at the grave throughout the day, occasionally taking breaks between visitors so that Kim can supply him with water. Meanwhile, Lalo is in the desert, staking out Gus's chicken farm. He closely watches the goings-on through a binoculars and jots down detailed notes. Lalo notices Mike and his team preparing to depart in search of Werner. Realizing that something is up, he packs up his equipment and sets off to follow Mike. Mike reaches the TravelWire office and tells the agent that Werner is a friend who is lost and suffering from dementia. Accepting Mike's story, the agent shows him security footage and transaction logs from Werner's visit, revealing that he has arranged to have his wife flown to Albuquerque from Germany. Victor appears outside and summons Mike to a meeting with a displeased Gus in the back of an SUV. Realizing that Gus intends to kill both Werner and his wife, Mike takes responsibility for Werner's actions and assures him there is a way he can mitigate the situation before his wife arrives. Act II Howard hosts the dedication of a new law library at HHM, which has been named after Chuck; Jimmy, Kim, and Rich all attend. Howard is interviewed by Joey's film crew and says that HHM is making a comeback after a tough year, and that the library will become Chuck's lasting legacy. Kim and Joey's crew help spread a rumor around the party that Jimmy donated most of the money used to build the library. Later, Jimmy, having been named as the member of HHM's scholarship committee in Chuck's will, sits in on a meeting as they vote on which applicants will receive the scholarship. Jimmy emerges as the lone vote for Kristy Esposito, whom the other board members refuse to support because of a prior shoplifting conviction. Reminded of how Chuck looked down on him over his own criminal past, Jimmy catches up with Kristy outside of the HHM building and gives her a life lesson: since the legal community will always treat her with disdain no matter how hard she works or how much she tries to make up for her past, she will have to cut corners and break the rules when necessary if she wants to succeed. TBC TBC Act III TBC BCS 410 11.png BCS 410 12.png BCS 410 13.png BCS 410 14.png Act IV Jimmy is about to deliver his appeal before the bar committee. Sensing that the committee is inclined to rule against him, Jimmy abandons Kim's script and doesn't read from Chuck's letter to them, instead improvising a speech about how he decided to become a lawyer because of Chuck, but constantly struggled to win Chuck's approval. He further promises to try to be a better person and "do everything in my power to be worthy of the name McGill" if the committee votes to reinstate his law license. Jimmy's speech moves Kim and a couple of the committee members to tears. BCS 410 15.png BCS 410 16.png BCS 410 17.png BCS 410 18.png Outside the courtroom, Jimmy and Kim celebrate his imminent reinstatement. However, Kim's joy turns to confusion and horror as Jimmy reveals that his entire speech was a calculated performance meant to sway the "suckers" on the committee; he never meant one word of his comments about Chuck. Kim is further perturbed when Jimmy reveals that he no longer plans to practice law under his own name, contrary to his statement before the bar. As a clerk leads Jimmy into an office to sign the necessary paperwork, Kim asks him what's going on. Jimmy turns back and replies: "S'all good, man!" BCS 410 19.png BCS 410 20.png BCS 410 23.png BCS 410 24.png Official Photos Better-call-saul-episode-410-kim-seehorn-935.jpg Better-call-saul-episode-410-mike-banks-935.jpg better-call-saul-episode-410-jimmy-odenkirk-4-935.jpg better-call-saul-episode-410-jimmy-odenkirk-3-935.jpg better-call-saul-episode-410-jimmy-odenkirk-6-935.jpg better-call-saul-episode-410-jimmy-odenkirk-5-935.jpg better-call-saul-episode-410-gus-esposito-935.jpg better-call-saul-episode-410-gale-boetticher-935.jpg better-call-saul-episode-410-jimmy-odenkirk-2-935.jpg better-call-saul-episode-410-jimmy-odenkirk-935.jpg Trivia *With a duration of 60 minutes, this is the longest episode of Better Call Saul so far, as well as the longest episode in the Breaking Bad universe. Until this episode, the longest episode was the Breaking Bad pilot (58 minutes). *At the beginning of the episode, its been a year since the events of and when Chuck committed suicide. *Jimmy McGill’s personality death and transformation into Saul Goodman begins with his breakdown in his car, according to producers. His transformation is official with the reinstatement of his license and his decision to practice under a different name. This is teased at the end by his infamous line “It s’all good man.” *The camera angle that slowly pulls away above Chuck and Jimmy in one of the opening scenes has been used before in Breaking Bad. Many consider that camera effect to correlate with the death of someone of great importance to the series. In , it marked the "death" of Walter White. In , it marked the death of Heisenberg. Here, it foreshadows the "death" of Jimmy McGill as well as the actual death of Chuck. *Kristy Esposito’s last name likely plays homage to the actor whom plays Gustavo Fring, Giancarlo Esposito. *Both Werner Ziegler’s last words as well as the night starry sky may indirectly reference some of Walt Whitman’s poems, whom Gale Boetticher is a fan of. Coincidentally, the very next scene shows Gale talking to Gus about cooking in the new superlab to be. **Gale is holding his infamous Lab Notes, the cover being visible when Gale exited the superlab site. *Despite occurring in a linear fashion in the episode itself, the separate storylines with Jimmy and Mike do not appear to occur at the same time. For Mike, the episode takes place immediately following . However, for Jimmy and Kim, it appears to have been at least a week or so. When Jimmy is at the grave site, it has been a year since Chuck's suicide with the last episode occurring a year after Jimmy was suspended in . At least a couple of weeks appeared to have passed between Jimmy being suspended and Chuck committing suicide. Furthermore, enough time has passed for Jimmy and Kim to have filed an appeal on his license reinstatement issue, donated the Charles L. McGill Reading Room and set up the reception surrounding its opening. *The ABBA song "The Winner Takes It All" that Chuck and Jimmy sang together during the flashback contains lyrics that may a connection between Jimmy and Chuck's rivalry for each other. Production Credits Starring= Starring * Bob Odenkirk as Jimmy McGill * Jonathan Banks as Mike Ehrmantraut * Rhea Seehorn as Kim Wexler * Patrick Fabian as Howard Hamlin * Michael Mando as Nacho Varga (credit only) * Giancarlo Esposito as Gustavo "Gus" Fring |-| Guest Starring= Guest Starring * Michael McKean as Chuck McGill * David Costabile as Gale Boetticher * Rainer Bock as Werner Ziegler * Tony Dalton as Lalo Salamanca * Dennis Boutsikaris as Richard Schweikart * Josh Fadem as Joey Dixon * Abby Quinn as Kristy Esposito * Hayley Holmes as Drama Girl * Jeremiah Bitsui as Victor * Ray Campbell as Tyrus Kitt * Brandon K. Hampton as Ernesto * Colleen Flynn as Committee Member * James Austin Johnson as Fred * Nick Bush as Milk Shake Guy |-| Co-Starring= Co-Starring * Audrey Moore as Julie * Julian Bonfiglio as Sound Guy * David Grant Wright as Lynton * Lucinda Marker as Cordova * Penny Costanzo as Emily Reed * Jack Forcinito as Ken Greenfield * Stephen F. Austin as Kenneth Kazanjian * Walter Anaruk as Joseph Adamson * Lindsey Elaine Shope as Diane Rourke * La Shawn Banks as Nathaniel Scott * Sean McGraw as Committee Member * Allison King as Bar Association Clerk * Sandra Perry as Board Member * Eston Elliott as Duncan Springer * Celianna Gallegos as Teodora Moon * Sapphire Persinger as Marcie Ramirez * Rico Paris as Franklyn Pickett * Alan Shen as Raymond Chin * David DeLaO as Diego * James E. Dowling as Francis Scheff * Harry Musselwhite as Male Attorney * Kathryn Smith-McGlynn as Female Attorney * Kate Chavez as Hotel Clerk * Sam Quinn as Burt * Eric Steinig as Nick * Howard Ferguson Jr. as Arthur * Zach Rose as Andre * Philip Allin Fornah as Sam * Robert Douglas Washington as Gus's Man #1 * Matt Roszak as Gus's Man #2 |-| Uncredited= Uncredited * Aeryn Peterson as Gina Robles Filming Locations * Trip Wire Money Order Services - Filmed in a store located at 3455 San Mateo Blvd. In the episode Cherokee Rd Stop Sign & the Oasis Vape store can be seen while Mike is standing out front of the store. * Los Pollos Hermanos Chicken Farm - Filmed at 9615 Broadway Blvd. The location no longer has the chicken houses on it. A google satellite image shows where these buildings used to stand. Featured Music *'"Total Eclipse of the Heart"' by Bonnie Tyler (sung karaoke by Ernesto at Jimmy's celebration party in a flashback) *'"The Winner Takes It All"' by Abba (sung karaoke by Jimmy and Chuck at Jimmy's celebration party in a flashback and while they are in bed together) Memorable Quotes Videos Better Call Saul Season 4 Finale - Jimmy's Breakdown|Jimmy's breakdown Category:Better Call Saul episodes Category:Season 4 episodes (Better Call Saul)